Two intentions fuel Shobha Karandlaje’s ongoing efforts for an image makeover. And they are complementary. Firstly, the middle-aged BJP legislator wants the public to see her as an unassuming person with a philosophical bent — one that is in contrast with her earlier conduct as a domineering politician and a feisty go-getter. All this to accomplish a bigger career interest: to come back to the Karnataka Cabinet from where detractors forced her exit eight months ago.
These days, Shobha is making all the right moves. Never earlier shy of hogging the media limelight, she is of late keeping a low profile. The newly earned docile demeanour apart, the 44-year-old still hasn’t lost her basic asset: determination and focus to achieve one’s goals. In this case, a return to Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa’s government — one that the Bharatiya Janata Party managed to install in the summer of 2008, for the first time in a state south of the Vindhyas.
Shobha hasn’t had an urbane upbringing. Better known as Baby to her friends and relatives, she was raised in a sleepy village of Dakshina Kannada district. A native of Charvaka in Puttur taluk, she has been known for her remarkable blend of deep-rooted beliefs and determination to make it big.
Shobha may not be a Mamata Banerjee, a Mayawati or a Jayalalithaa, but it’s certainly not for lack of self-belief. After all, Karnataka has never produced a leading political lady, and Shobha believes she can make it one day, given her acumen and Sangh Parivar affiliations, along with favourable caste factors (she belongs to the Vokkaliga community, which has leaders like former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and External Affairs Minister S M Krishna).
That said, to her credit, Shobha has no political lineage, no inherited wealth or muscle backing. Not surprisingly, her political achievements till last year did make quite a few fellow professionals jealous. A non-entity in 1998 when she decided to become a full-time BJP worker, Shobha has had a meteoric rise. She was made an MLC in 2004 and got elected to the Assembly in 2008 — and then bagged the key portfolio of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj minister. Soon she began enjoying the status of being first among equals in the Cabinet.
It didn’t take long for the rumour mills to do the rounds. Shobha’s obsessively bitter colleagues within the BJP spread stories about her decade-old professional relationship with Yeddyurappa, even accusing her of being his consort and a super CM. Yeddyurappa always maintained a dignified silence on allegations about his relations with Shobha. The lady, on her part, put up a brave face. “Politics is a difficult profession for women,” she says and points at how even people like late PM Indira Gandhi had to face similar charges. “People were jealous about the good work I did as a minister. The male psyche works that way. They think that a woman’s role is in the kitchen. The strength of a woman is her ability to do dedicated work. It is not always tolerated.”
Yet, for the record, you can’t overlook these facts: a Sankalp Yatra Yeddyurappa organised in 1998 helped Shobha strike a rapport with her party leader. “It was during the march the duo came close,” says a party insider. Adds a colleague: “It was this proximity that got her the seat to the Legislative Council in 2004, despite strong opposition from within the ranks.” Whatever, from there on, Shobha never looked back. She grew from strength to strength and became a close confidante of Yeddyurappa. Till recently, senior leaders met her first to ascertain the mood of Yeddyurappa.
She, however, is nonchalant about the gossip on her relation with Yeddyurappa, a 67-year-old widower. "He is a father figure for me. Very friendly,” says Shobha, the MLA from Yeshwantpur in Bangalore. “It is his nature to identify enterprising persons. As in the case of others, he groomed and appreciated my work too. If he is proud of me, it’s like a parent about his or her child who has excelled in life. As for the gossip, it is only to tarnish his image — and mine.”
But what has set rumour mills running is the indiscretion of Yeddyurappa himself. Far from being sensitive to the conservative emotions of society at large and his party in particular, he encouraged Shobha to be by his side on public platforms and at ceremonial occasions. The CM made her part of his foreign travel entourage and gave her responsibilities like briefing Cabinet decisions and making her the party’s in charge of a key district like Mysore. Several senior ministers used to complain that the CM would ask officials to “run it past” her before he put his initials.
Shobha makes her staunch defence: “I have risen from the ranks. I may be close to the CM, but then you try to work closely with whoever is your leader. It isn’t to seek power I have come to politics, though, I won’t hastily retreat.” Unlike most middle-class girls, Shobha’s school days were packed, fighting for various causes from the Save Kumaradhara river campaign to opposing the Congentrix power plant. Later, armed with a master’s degree in social work and political science, she chose full-time social service through the Rashtriya Sevika Samiti, the women’s wing of the RSS. The resolve stopped her from even getting married.
Always loyal to Yeddyurappa, she is said to have offered to give up her MLC seat to her mentor, who, at one point, had decided to quit the BJP and join the JD(S). (It has been one point JD(S) leader Deve Gowda always loves to quote in his running feud with Yeddyurappa on several issues.) Shobha was part of Yeddyurappa’s team that negotiated a deal in early 2006 with JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy to forge an alliance, but was ‘stopped’ from becoming a minister in the JD(S)-BJP coalition due to resistance from the saffron ranks.
But none could stop her clout in the government, particularly in the finance portfolio Yeddyurappa held as the deputy CM in that government. She was made the party in charge for the assembly by-poll in Ullal near Mangalore. Shobha failed to fetch her party a victory, and dissidents got the first opportunity to strike at her. But Yeddyurappa steadfastly stood by her. In October 2007, the JD(S) snapped ties with the BJP and refused to transfer power to Yeddyurappa the next month. Finally, when state elections were held in May 2008, Shobha won from Yeshwantpur, a Vokkaliga stronghold, though with only a margin of around 2,000 votes.
Bagging the powerful RDPR department, she became the lone woman in the Yeddyurappa government that was sworn in on May 30, 2008. Her detractors say other women were denied a chance, and argue that Shobha’s status in the government was not commensurate with her experience. Whatever the case be, Shobha did well as a minister. She was credited with the transparent system of recruitment of panchayat development officers. And her successor Jagadish Shetter, who was sworn in when Shobha quit as minister on November 9 last year, has been no match for her in terms of work.
So, what was it that made others bay for her blood? Well, Shobha’s influence had spread to the extent that she was accused of encroaching into the functioning of departments headed by senior leaders. What’s more, she decided to take on the mighty Bellary brothers (see box). Shobha had to pay the price — and resign.
Today, Shobha claims her losing the ministership has only helped her functioning at the grassroots level. “No lobby can stop me now from serving the people,” she asserts, and recalls how she traversed North Karnataka after last September when floods devastated the region. Another monsoon is now on in Karnataka, and it’s now rejuvenation time for Shobha Karandlaje.
— rajashekhara@expressbuzz.com